Abbas wants Jordanian forces

June 27, 2007 9:00am

The Palestinian president wants a Palestinian military unit from Jordan under Jordanian command to patrol the West Bank.Palestinian Authority President signaled that he wants Jordan to command a 2,000-man military unit in the West Bank made up of Fatah loyalists from Jordan, according to The Associated Press.Jordan condones deploying the force, known as the Badr Brigade, but Jordanian officials insist they have no intention of reestablishing a Jordanian presence in the West Bank.”We shouldn’t read too much into this,” Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh told the AP. Deploying the force in the West Bank ”shouldn’t be seen as Jordan taking up a security or any other role” in the Palestinian territories.Jordan’s previous king, Hussein, had talked on several occasions about establishing a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation once a Palestinian state was born. Jordan is more than 50 percent Palestinian.